Rubbish

People were reminding me it was about time to update my blog again. So here it is!! Hooraay!

I have to say my brains aren't working on full capacity at the moment. My university brain is kind of on standby at the moment so I have to do with my normal brain. Actually I think they are on strike. They want better sleeping conditions. And I think the rest of my body agrees to that.
Living on your own has its advantages. It's really awesome to have your own room, something you even pay for yourself. I mean I love living with mom but it's also really cool if you can call something your own. And it's also cool to live on a campus in some foreign country, although sometimes it stills scares the crap out of me. You get to meet new people (although I am still too shy to actually talk to them longer than 10 minutes. At some point the awkward silence kicks in and then I choose the easy way, make up some excuse so you can go to your room again) and you see new places. (And of course no one that tells you that you have to clean up your room.)
But there are also some downsides. As you probably already have seen, the kitchen is utterly disgusting and at some days the shower isn't much better. The toilet doesn't really flush half of the time and the other half the light decided to go on disco mode. Luckily we have cleaning ladies in the morning. So when I don't have to work or have a late shift I usually go stand ready behind the door with my towel and soap and race to the shower the minute the cleaning lady is done. Then the shower is sooo gooooood!
But anyways the thing I dislike the most is the noise. These buildings are so noisy I can hear every little thing that is happening here. Usually I don't really mind, if it's annoying you just turn on some music. But if you want to go to sleep cause you are working an early shift and thus have to wake up at 5.30 the noises can be really annoying. All the doors here have some safety thingy so they automatically shut. Really handy, but the problem is they aren't very discrete. It's like some really mad 8 year old is constantly slamming doors. And if people aren't busy with walking from room to room it's the music that keeps you awake or the talking or the whatever it is they are doing there. Sometimes I don't even want to know what is it they are doing. Although by the sounds of it you can kind of guess it's not drinking tea. Anyways and if the people finally decide to behave and acknowledge the 11-hour no more music rule it's the goose/geese that keep you awake. I don't know exactly what it is they are doing, it's either a massive war or some kind of mating ritual. I don't like geese. Luckily dear mom send me some earplugthingies, bless her. Hopefully they will get here soon so I can sleep in peace.

But ok enough about that, my point is just that I am kind of a little bit tired.
The other reason for that is internship. All the new impressions and constantly translating everything really takes its toll on you. But well 3 more days of early shifts and then I can sleep again, hooorraaay!
Now the good part of internship, it's really great! The people are just so welcoming and open and funny. (I think I already said that in my last blog but still, it really is true!) So far I have seen a lot of things, like an ultrasound and a ct-scan. And today I could look while a doctor removed a catheter (the patient didn't look very happy) and then had to put a new one in (and again he didn't really look happy). It was really interesting to see but knowing that I have to do that someday myself, scared the living crap out of me. I could almost feel that dudes pain, I mean I practically flinched when the doctor pulled the thing out. Thinking that I have to be the one inflicting it makes me really nervous. Although in the end it's for the best, but still. I will just start with injecting people, that is scary enough.
Today I made a start with one of my school assignments so that's good. I have to complete 6 assignments this year, I really hope I can make it. Why did they even come up with assignments anyways? It would be way cooler if we could just like hang around a ward the bit all day. Do some cool stuff like injecting and catheterizing without having to worry to collect evidence that you actually did those things. Whoever made this new competencelearningstuff really had nothing better to do huh? Silly old men.
Anyways I don't really have anything cool to say anymore. Oh well it did snow on Saturday!! Luckily it didn't stick to the ground or I would have gone mental. I can't see any more snow for the next couple of like 10 months. I mean it looks really pretty and all, but why does it have to be so cold and wet?
I prefer warm and dry.
Let's see, anything else? No that was it. I think. I am not sure. Bigfat chance I will read the story tomorrow again and add another 1,5 page. If I do, sorry for that.

Okaaay see you next tiiimmmee!
Muchos Lovos
Laura

Scheveningen

I thought it was about time for another update. Especially since today was my first day at intern, but that will be kept for last. Just so I know for sure that you will read the entire blog, isn't that smart of me? I have to say, university life really is good for me. It's like getting instant cleverness! I felt my brain growing the minute I walked at uni grounds.
Anyways that was not the point, although it's an interesting subject.

So okay let me check where I left off. Ah yes that's where. This weekend wasn't really special. Oh no wait it was, I met some housemates! The first few days I was actually hiding in my room because I was a bit too chicken to say hi to anyone. I know I know, it's stupid but I totally didn't know what to say. They all talk so brilliantly English with their cool accents and compared to that my Dutchish English really sounds just terrible.
But anyways Saturday I finally got the courage to talk to someone. It was actually my neighbor who just got up and apparently had a huge hangover. She invited me over for takeout that evening with some more housemates. We had Chinese food which is really different compared to Chinese in Holland, but still really nice. After ‘arguing' for 5 minutes Brigit even got her meal too! Apparently the noodles all look alike so they couldn't figure out which noodlethingy belonged to who, it was kind of funny. So anyways my housemates are really nice. I've got a lot of international people here so that's kind of nice too. And they are all bloody insane, I should feel right at home here.
Sunday wasn't really special, although that was the first time we cooked. Don't ask me what I ate the other 3 days, you don't want to know. And if you see my kitchenphoto's you'll understand why I was afraid to cook. Oh by the way they cleaned up the kitchen now. Chances of me getting a diseases tumbled down to 60% instead of 99,9%.
Monday we had our first (and last) class at the university, about the neurological system. It's too bad it's our only class here. Not only does it sound absolutely cool to say 'oh he see you this afternoon I am going to college first,' but the classes here are pretty interesting! I was afraid I wouldn't understand it because of all the English and Latin but the lady giving the class was really good. She talked in normal people language which was understandable even for me. I've learned a lot in that class, which is really weird because last year we've already got a class about the neurological system from like the greatest teacher ever!!!!! (Yeah you've guessed right, he is reading this too.)
Oh the funny part was that at the end of class we had to do this assignment in groups. Brigit and me were looking at each other like ohhh god how on earth will we get a group. But the ladies next to us were so kind to ask if we wanted to join their group. We had to make, what I think, was some English version of a nursing care plan thingy. I really had no clue what on earth we were doing but all the other people in the group were telling the answers so I just wrote down whatever they were saying. I really hope they don't use that system in the hospital or they will have a lot of explaining to do.
After that we've paid our accommodation, which was about 1100 Euros in total. I think I stared at my bank account for 5 minutes in utter shock. And an hour later another 55 Euros was gone. I did get a shiny month ticket for the bus in return.
But anyways now all the important payments are done so that's a bit less stressful. All the money I get now I can spend on food and well food because that's probably about everything I can afford. Oh and I will buy a nice James college sweater so I can prove I really have been to England!

The next day we had this health assessment thingy at the hospital. We had no clue what they were going to do. In fact I wouldn't have been surprised if they brought us in this sort of questioning room you always see in these crime scene series, where they would put a blinding light in our face and ask us millions of questions about our health. In the end he just wanted to see our vaccinations passports and well that was about it. It was kind of an anticlimax, I at least suspected some glaring and swearing and blackmailing. There was not even a fancy lamp.
After that we went to our wards to meet our mentors. We first went to ward 11, Brigits ward, where she met one of her mentors. After that we went to ward 14, which is right across ward 11. I've been introduced to my mentor, Marijke. She comes from Holland, so I am very very lucky. She lives here for about ehm I think 20 years if I remember correctly. Maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less. Anyways she told me that we will mostly be talking English since of course it's the main language here and because she finds it hard to talk about medical stuff in Dutch. But it's a good thing, this way I can learn English and if I really don't know something I can just ask in Dutch. We've decided that tomorrow we will start working, and luckily for us we will get an early shift hooray!
Oh it was kind of embarrassing, my mentor asked me 'well what do you want to see or do?' when we were introduced. And I got so nervous, I kind of started stuttering and rumbling about tomorrow and working and actually I don't even know what I was saying exactly. Luckily my uni mentors helped me (they brought us to the hospital by car, really nice of them. And no they are not even reading this, I am honestly being nice.) so I could have the same shift as Brigit. Now at least when we will get lost we will be lost together.
So after that our uni mentors, did I mention their names? I don't think I did, they're both named Karen. Which is kind of nice, since I usually forget names pretty quickly. This way I only have to remember one name. Anyways they dropped us at morrisons, a cheap supermarket, which is kind of far from campus, so we could get some needed groceries. I kind of went overboard there, the nearest bus stop was about a 10 minutes from there and I bought, well almost half of the store. I will be alright for at least a week now but my hands will hate me. I've got blisters on my blisters I think.

The next day finally the day arrived!
I was really looking forward to it and because it was so early my emotions weren't working so I couldn't be nervous until I was already walking on the ward. In the beginning it was a bit awkward because you don't know where to go or what to do. But the people there were really nice and they helped me so I got over it pretty quick. I had a good talk with my mentor about English hospitals and English care in general and how it is, compared to dutchieland. I also got a few hints and tips about differences in behavior between Englishmen and Dutchies and what to do and what not. It was really helpful en it helped me get comfortable. When I told her I've never worked in a hospital before she was kind of surprised. She thought everyone got placed in a hospital, like some standard procedure. Unfortunately there just aren't enough spaces.
So well since this was the first time working in a hospital, Marijke decided it would be best if I would work with a health care assistant that day. I am still grateful for that. If I understood correctly health care assistants don't have a diploma but they followed (some) course(s) in the hospital. They do all the basic stuff like help with washing and getting clothes on, clean a bit, do coffee and tea rounds and help with the food round. Because of this decision I could get to know the ward and the hospital and well the whole system without being overwhelmed with all the new information. I think that, if I had walked with a nurse today, I would have died cause of brain overload. Even my pimped up uni brain can't take up that much in one day. That day I mostly helped people with washing and getting dressed, did some beds, did some cleaning, I did a lot of following of my health care assistant and I've taught another colleague some dutch. It was so funny to hear him pronounce Scheveningen or even my name. Tomorrow I will learn him 'zeven scheve sneetjes brood ' if he's there.
So all in all it was a great first day. I have learned a lot and now I come to think of it except for the awkward part in the beginning I didn't really feel nervous.
Tomorrow I will go with a staff nurse. I am really looking forward to that but I am also really nervous. But well so far everyone was really kind and my brain will have a night to process all the new information so I think I will survive. If not, well it was nice to meet you all and thanks for reading my blog.

Okay so at the moment I have to say my body is kind of pressuring me to go to bed. And seeing that this story is starting to look like a book of its own it's probably a good idea to just give in and go to bed.
Oh one last thing, it just popped into my head. I really loveee the language here. Everyone is always saying love and sweety or anything of that kind at the end of their sentence. 'Do you want a cup of tea love?' 'Do you need a wash love?' 'Watch your buttocks love.' Even though probably all the yorkish people think it's normal, to me it sounds really sweet. Like you really make a bond with people. But well I can't say it yet, I think everyone will look at me with a you-crossed-the-line-there-missy-look. They will all think I actually love the woman I was trying to wash. Not a really good idea.
Oh okay now it is really time to stop writing. I am starting to talk rubbish, that's not really a good sign.

Stay tuned and someday another awesome story appears about what stupid things I said in English. Cause believe me, I am bound to say something awfully stupid, meaning something completely else. I mean it's just written in the stars.

Cheers!

Ps. Non dutchies: Click ‘reageer' to respond, gives me the feeling people actually read my blog
Pps. I thought it was worth mentioning that before this sentence I wrote exactly 1900 words. Amazing isnt it?

First 2 days!

Hiya

So yesterday we totally arrived in York! I am writing in my room now this is so awesome! But ok first things first.

I started packing like a week ago but it wasn't really useful since I needed like half of the stuff that was in my bag. And I was going to Italy first so I needed the small bag. So well yeah not very smart.
Anyways!
So Tuesday evening I started packing and I got a bit enthusiastic. At some point I had about 25 kilo in my bag, and I was only allowed to have 20. I felt a bit girly. So I had to make some really difficult life on dead choices on which to take and which to leave behind! It was so so sad. In the end a book, some shampoo and some clothes didn't survive the battle and had to stay behind. I told them to look after the castle so they would feel a bit useful anyways.
So up next was my little cute handbag, with a maximum of 10 kilo's. I had 10.1 so I decided that it would be good enough or else I would use the puppy eyes. I do need to look for a guy check in thingy then since woman are a bit less vulnerable to my puppy eyes. But I mean what is 0.1kg?
That night I didn't really sleep, the only thing I could thinkabout was packing. When I finally slept I dreamed about York being in Italy and me being a wizard who couldn't remember the spells. But I mean they were Latin, how on earth am I supposed to remember Latin words? Stupid wizardteachers.
Ok anyways after a really sweet last breakfast with mom (she got us some croissants and stuff, thankyou!) we went to the airport. I had the great idea to park on the second parkingplacethingy cause the first one usually is very busy. Turned out the second one was really busy so we had to walk quite a bit with my suitcases and the first one was well, empty. Another confirmation that listening to me isn't always the smartest thing to do. Especially when in a car. Usually it is tho so better listen to me anyways.
But I got so lucky on the airport! My bag was slightly too heavy, about 0.8 kilo I think. But I didn't have to pay anything. However Brigit had to pay, apparently they don't like it when your bag is 2.1kg too heavy. So weird. But the part with the security was the greatest part of the day. You know you have to walk through the controls with their x-raying thingies, checking if you don't have any illegal drugs? Well I think they saw the insides of Brigits bagabout 3 times before they decided it was okay. However, apparently I looked very terroristy so they took my hard disk and asked me to walk with them to some little room. The woman told me she had to check my hard disk for dynamite. Cause I mean I absolutely look like the type to have dynamite in my hard disk...... Dude! In the end it turned out I didn't have any dynamite with me so me and my little innocent hard disk were free to go.
Oh and it was quite awesome, we left around 2.30 and arrived around 3. Got to love the time difference, but I got a huuuuge jetlag of course.

So ok we arrived in Leeds! Hooraayy! Next problem was finding a bus or taxi. Turned out better not to look for taxis, to go from Leeds to York campus was about 65pounds (I can't find the pound symbol)(do you write pounds like this?)(why dont they just have euros?). So we took a bus, then a train and then another bus. Took us about 5 hours including the plane. I have to say I was kind of exhausted when we finally arrived in our rooms. But the room is great. I have my own washingbinthingy and a view on the little lake with all the pretty lights! I took some pictures of my room so I won't have to explain how it looks like. Check the link in the bottom of this blog to see them =D (the pretty light I still have to photograph tho)
So well nothing excited happened then since I was kind of in zombie mode. I unpacked my stuff, ensured everyone I was alive and went to bed. But dude they wouldn't even let me sleep! Some people in my building decided this was a nice night to slam some doors and talk a lot. So today I bought earplugs. =D I left them at Brigits tho. =(

There is a real goose/geese/whateverwar going on outside atm. All the goose/geese/....(fill in the word)are like making sounds, I think they are battling for territory. Crap and I have to go outside in like 5 minutes. I will totally get killed cause I got on their territory. Ah they finished hooray then I can go outside!

So okay the rest of my day wasn't very exciting except for the meeting with our uni-mentors. We now know we will work on the surgery ward. Me in ward 14 and Brigit in ward 11. The first 2 weeks we have to work the same shifts as our mentor to get to know the ward and all the rules a bit. After those 2 weeks we can make our own schedule, but within reason of course. It's not like we can be like oh well the rest of the weeksI'll just work in the morning, there done. We have to work some different shifts so we know what all theshifts are like. We have 4 different shifts:
Long day: 7.00-19.30
Early: 7.00-15.00
Late: 13.30-21.30
Night: 19.00-07.30
I am not sure if we have to work the night but it would be a cool experience. I am starting to feel real excited about the internship!

Monday we will follow 2 classes in the university, I feel so smart! And Tuesday we have this health assessment thing in the hospital, don't ask me what exactly it is. I hope they won't get too touchy. And after that we will probably go to the wards to get to know it a bit. And we probably hear when we have to start working.
We also went to York to do some shopping. We didn't have any food in our room except some cookies (again thanks mom, now I didn't starve to death) so we were kind of hungry. York is really pretty, I will make some pictures soon but today I was still exhausted so I didn't have the energy to take out my camera, turn it on, make a picture, put it back. I mean doing stuff like that really is exhausting as hell! So sorry, but you have to wait a bit more to see pictures of York. We will go back tomorrow so I'll probably make some pictures then!

Okay I wrote too much, I got a bit excited. I'll stop for now!
Leave a message! =) For the non dutchies, click ‘reageer'.

Babaaaaai! <3

Oh and my photos:
http://s1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc451/Dorkinyork/

The date is holy.

So, this day is officialy the best day in history. Not only because it is my birthday, which is ofcourse very important. I mean, it plays a big part in being the best day. Even without the other event it would be one of the best days. But well that is ofcourse understandable.

I was checking my mail, which I do every 5 minutes because I like getting happy birthday mails. Makes me feel popular for once, it's awesome. And there it was, the mail we've been waiting for for weeks now. We finally got a room!!!!
I think I was bouncing on my chair for about 5 minutes before I could think about doing something sane. I was already thinking we really had to sleep under a bridge, I found a nice box and all! But we got to sleep in a bed! How awesome is that!

So I kind of still have to accept the offer, but I am still too happy to do anything sane. We have to pay 200GBP (I am still confused with dollars so I'll just use the abbreviation I saw on the website) in advance, with a creditcard ofcourse which I don't have. I don't like credit cards, why do you always need creditcards?
Anyways! But we got a room in the college we liked the most! The english nurse students will be mostly there too so that's cool. We're really close to the sport & fitness centre which I will definitely be visiting a lot (ahem well no not really). Oh but the busstop is pretty far, why did they do that? It's like you have the fitness centre near you so that will mean you will be very healthy so then you can walk to your busstop. Duuuude I dont work out :( I'll rent a bike orso, which will probably get stolen first week.
Oh we just figured out we probably have 2 different buildings, so we'll be all alone in some english building with scary english people.

But the most important part is
WE HAVE ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMS

Update:
I accepted, I officialy haz a roooooooooom :D I like rooms, they are like warm and dry. I am searching for some pictures but as soon as I find some I will post them here!
Ok I am not entirely sure but this seems to be the room in my block:

Aaaaand the kitchen

Best.day.ever.